Rochester Region Federal Funds Dashboard
How the Rochester Region Is Spending Federal Recovery Dollars
The federal government has provided unprecedented levels of flexible relief funds to local governments to help them recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to move into longer term growth. As the City of Rochester and Monroe County allocate and spend these federal funds, they have an opportunity to not only stimulate economic growth, but to increase equity and remediate some of the past injustices that have been built into our nation’s laws and programs. To do so, the funds must be used to ensure that everyone–especially historically excluded groups–can benefit from and contribute to economic growth.
This dashboard tracks data on how the City of Rochester and Monroe County have allocated State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) provided through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). These funds grant a great deal of authority to municipal governments to decide how they should be spent, and they must be obligated by the end of 2024 and spent by the end of 2026. We focus on how well these allocations align with the building blocks of an inclusive recovery and equitable economy.
The dashboard is laid out as follows:
- How funds are being spent by policy area and subtopic
- Alignment of allocations with Urban Institute’s building blocks of an inclusive recovery
- Alignment of allocations with Rochester Area Community Foundation’s focus areas
- Mapping of the City of Rochester’s SLFRF capital investments onto original redlining maps for the city and current racial characteristics of neighborhoods
- Detailed table of all allocations and their descriptions
Note: This dashboard does not track outcomes from these investments – it only shows where the dollars are flowing.
What policy areas are being funded?
Figure 1 shows how funding has been allocated across policy categories. Most of the funds have been allocated to Community and Economic Development, Infrastructure, and Housing, while the least have been allocated to Operations, Public Health and COVID-19 Response, and Social Services.
What subtopics are funded within each policy area?
The figure below provides a more detailed breakdown of subtopic allocations within each policy area. For example, most of the money allocated to community and economic development has been allocated to workforce development. Click on each tab to see allocations toward subtopics within each policy area.
An Example
These investments are making a difference in people’s lives. For example, Gabrielle Smith, seen below, received funding through the City of Rochester’s Guaranteed Basic Income pilot. This means that she received $500 each month over 12 months. This helped her work toward her goals of buying a car so that she can help take her brand-new granddaughter to the places she needs to go, and to have more time to spend with her family without stressing about financial issues. Watch this short film to hear stories of how these funds have affected people in Rochester.
How much is being spent on an inclusive recovery and equitable economy?
By our estimation, 66% of city and county funding has been allocated towards the building blocks of an inclusive recovery and equitable economy. Previous work by the Urban Institute identified five building blocks of an inclusive recovery and equitable economy, shown below. These were identified based on empirical research and in collaboration with community leaders from across the country.
The Building Blocks of An Inclusive Recovery and Equitable Growth
Figure 2 below shows the total amount of funding for Rochester and Monroe County that was allocated to programs that align with these building blocks, based on review of the program description and goals.
Out of the 65% of funds allocated to programs that align with the five building blocks of an inclusive recovery, the most funding has been allocated to reinvesting in disinvested communities while the least has been allocated to creating jobs for residents hardest hit by the pandemic or who face the greatest barriers to employment. Figure 3 below shows how that funding is divided among the five building blocks and includes only the funds allocated to programs that align with the building blocks (the 65%).
How are other places spending their recovery dollars to increase equity?
[Placeholder for Example from a Peer City]
How does funding align with the Rochester Area Community Foundation’s priorities?
61.1% of SLFRF funding has been allocated towards the Rochester Area Community Foundations priorities. These include:
Closing the academic achievement and opportunity gap;
Fostering racial and ethnic understanding and equity;
Partnering against poverty;
Supporting arts and culture;
Preserving historic assets;
Advancing environmental justice and sustainability; and
Promoting successful aging.
Overall, 61.8% of SLFRF funding has been allocated towards these priority areas.
The figure below shows how SLFRF funding is divided among the priority topics and includes only the funds allocated to programs that align with one of RACF’s priority areas. The majority of the aligned funds are for partnering against poverty, followed by advancing environmental justice. Less well funded through SLFRF are preserving historical assets, promoting successful aging, and supporting arts and culture.
An example: RENEW
Rochester ENergy Efficiency & Weatherization (RENEW) is a collective impact initiative in Rochester that helps income-qualified homeowners make their homes more energy-efficient, healthier, and safer from environmental hazards. RENEW received $850,000 of ARPA funds from Monroe County to do this work, which they hope will help build wealth, prevent home foreclosure, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create improved health outcomes for families. Using these funds, RENEW will assist up to 200 income-qualified homeowners and up to 800 residents living in those homes to complete projects that promote energy-efficiency, health, and/or safety goals. Listen to Elizabeth from RENEW on Connections to hear about their work in the community.
Insert quote form Elizabeth about how the ARPA funding helped their work
Which neighborhoods are the funds being spent in?
The map below shows how the City of Rochester’s SLFRF capital investments map onto racial characteristics of neighborhoods, as well as the original Federal redlining maps for the city. Click on the tabs at the top to see how they overlap with the percent of residents who are Black in a neighborhood and the percent of residents who are Hispanic/Latino in a neighborhood.
Redlining refers to the system that the Federal Housing Administration and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation used to grade the profitability of neighborhoods in the late 1930s. The four categories were green (areas most desirable for lending purposes), blue (still desirable), yellow (declining), and red (the riskiest for mortgage support). These grades were largely based on the neighborhood’s racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious composition. Generally, White, middle-class neighborhoods received FHA home loans, whereas many Black and Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods were deemed hazardous and declining in value and did not receive FHA insured mortgages or loans. These maps had long lasting effects on racial segregation, homeownership, and house values in redlined neighborhoods.
How might Rochester invest more in some of these building blocks?
Other places have found ways to use federal funds to invest in stabilizing housing, building wealth, and creating jobs. For instance, the City of Boston is using ARPA funds to transform publicly-owned land into green, mixed income communities. One project in Chinatown, shown below, will include 83 affordable rental units and 36 affordable homeownership units. The property is located in a walkable and bikeable neighborhood and will be energy efficient and follow the City of Boston’s Carbon Free, Climate Resilient, and Healthy Community goals. It was developed after extensive community engagement with nearby neighbors.
Explore All Programs Funded
This table shows all programs that the City of Rochester and Monroe County have allocated SLFRF funds to, as well as their building block, policy area, policy subtopic, and RACF priority area category. The default display on the table shows the programs in order from largest to smallest allocation. You can use the arrows next to each column title to sort the table by that column, and you can use the search bars under each column or the overall search bar to search the table.
Note: Data on spending were only available from the City of Rochester
Data current as of: 05/01/24, 07/31/23
About the Dashboard
This dashboard was created by the Urban Institute in partnership with and support from ACT Rochester and Rochester Area Community Foundation (RACF) to visualize Monroe County and the City of Rochester’s ARPA spending by the five building blocks of inclusive recovery, policy category, and RACF’s investment priorities. By tracking recovery funding expenditures, this dashboard allows us to monitor public spending by the categories most critical in supporting an inclusive recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information about the dashboard, please contact Meg Norris (ACT Rochester) or Christina Stacy (Urban Institute).
Click For Glossary of Terms
The code used to create this dashboard was writen by Manuel Alcalá Kovalski and can be found on GitHub.